Legacy of Battle

Adventure 8: A Rock and A Hard Place

7

FEB/16

Abadius 2nd and the group receives another mysterious note in gilded script telling them to follow Lieutenant Borlin Trell’s instruction and find something hidden wherever he would have them go. Moments later, Lieutenant Trell arrives at the The Goose and Feathers and requests a meeting with them. In it, he details that the stone quarry west of the village of Bav has been experience attacks from apparently elementals. The Kingsguard was sent it initially and thought the problem solved, but the creatures returned. He requests they travel to the quarry and find a resolution to the matter with haste.

While stopping in Rhem, a halfling child, Urch comes upon the group while being chased by a metal construct hound. After dispatching the hound, Tycho and Sammy go to the crafter’s workshop, Wilker, a local wizard and tinkerer. They find his body and a journal noting that he was working on something to protect and help the poor children in the town, though it apparently turned on him when animated for some reason.

While in route to Bav, the caravan is pulled to a halt due to a collapse in the road, seemingly the work of a tunnel burrowed too close to the surface. While investigating, an ankheg burst from the road near the trench and attacked. Gamecock was grabbed and pulled into the tunnel and down toward its lair. The group gave chase and eventually defeated the creature, but not before Gamecock had perished. Afterward, Sammy was inconsolable, unable to even find solace in his brothers.

During their evening in Bav, Tycho and Mariun say their goodbyes and she leaves him a token in the morning to remember her by. That night, Sammy skipped town in the night in search of a longshot effort to find a druid of greater power than himself. Days of searching the nearby Fisk Thicket turned up nothing and when too much time had passed, he sent a message to his brothers hoping to catch them in the village and let them know he would not be returning, instead setting out into the wilderness on his own.

Despite the abandonment from their brother, Tycho and Kraeg continue to the quarry to finish their assignment from Lieutenant Trell. At the quarry, they find the remains of the horse and men killed in the most recent attacks. While traveling the lowest tier of the quarry to the new marble vein, they are set upon by the elemental-esk mudmen they were warned about. Dispatched, they set to work on widening a hole into a chamber behind and within the marble vein. Sealed inside, they find another keystone, and the image of a dark skinned elf speaks in an old common dialect about the Sentinel Gate and his sons. After defeating the guardians of the chamber, they depart and begin the long journey home.

When within a couple days from Soren, they receive a visit from Aeron Masrin, the author of the myserious notes they’ve received. He tells them a long tale about a sorceress named Scylda Rast who he is a warden for and her near possession of Lithia Ambrose. It is her influence that drove Davren Ambrose to arrange for the robbery and poisoning they dealt with in Lyrus. Since, Scylda has taken possession of the first keystone that Reynold Dunwiddy located. With it, she has begun searching for the others and if able to reassemble and activate it, plans to take control of the Southern Kingdoms. Aeron requests their aid in stopping her. After a long discussion, they agree and he leaves them.

They arrive back in Soren a couple days later and Lieutenant Trell finds them shortly thereafter and rewards them for completing the job. That night, after soaking off the weeks of travel, the group gets a message from Captain Heen Feril of Lyrus asking them to return as soon as they can because their mother is missing.